5 Easy ways for busy parents to kick start their weight loss and improve their work performance

Of my personal training clients 90% of them are working parents. It is exceptionally difficult to overhaul your lifestyle when you feel time is a precious commodity.

Trust me, I’m a busy dad of two operating two businesses i know how easy it is to slip into a world of convenience food, caffeine and needing a trip to the pub to unwind.

Yes it’s an effort to change your habits but you don’t have to live off rabbit food and spend hours in the gym to become “healthy”. You just need to be better than you are now and build on that
I can’t tell you how many times i hear people say “I didn’t realise how bad i felt until i started to eat better”. It can get to a stage where feeling like crap becomes the norm and so in our heads we feel fine. The extra couple of stone hanging over your trousers is the problem. Or so you think

Is it possible that this could be you? That you are holding yourself back from your true potential. If you could just improve your diet would you not have a lot more energy? Would this improve your performance at work? Wouldn’t you love to sleep better and actually wake up ready for the day rather than wondering where the next coffee is coming from? Not to mention the weight loss! This would give you more confidence, improve your self-esteem and make you happier and also less irritable and make both your work and home life better.

Ok so you get the benefits but being healthy involves a world of sacrifice right? Wrong. If you are eating a lot of crisps, chocolate, biscuits and pastries you sure as hell are not doing yourself any favours. Keep a food diary for a week. Use an app such as myfitnesspal and track what’s going in. Spot the real glaring problems in your diet and either eliminate them or at least drop the servings in half. If you are hungry you can swop in fruit, Greek yoghurt or a small serving of nuts to replace them.

But i want to help you. Here are 5 easy ways to improve your nutrition even if you don’t have time on your side:

1.Save some of last nights dinner and consume the following day for lunch
It goes without saying that last nights dinner needs to be relatively healthy. If you are eating a kebab don’t bother!! Something like a chilli made with lean chicken or turkey mince with a small portion of brown rice can easily be eaten the next day and has a much better nutritional punch than a shop bought sandwich. Another option is to cook up a batch of healthy meals portion them out and freeze them and just take them from the freezer the night before you will need them.If you are thinking i’m too lazy for that there are plenty of companies such as progains – progainsmeals.com/ who can take all the hassle away from you and deliver it to your door

2. Change white foods to brown ones
The easiest fix there is. Any starchy carb that is white – think bread, rice, pasta etc – swop it for its brown (wholemeal) counterpart. The added fibre slows the digestion rate of what you are eating and so keeps you full for longer. This means you are far less likely to reach for the biscuit tin as you go through the day

3. Don’t skip any meals
One of the biggest problems I face is clients who skip breakfast or lunch or both. Not only is this terrible for the metabolism you are depriving your body of nutrients and energy when it needs it most. We are fuelled by food and so if we don’t fuel up during our most operational times of the day our body will work but certainly not at its optimum. Your concentration span will be poor, motivation will be lower and everything will feel more like a grind.

Worst still as soon as you walk through the door you will be ready to eat your pet dog you’re starving so much and so binge on everything and anything in the evening. If you are someone who can’t stomach breakfast it’s probably due to all the crap you fed yourself the night before.

But if that’s not the reason start with small amounts and gradually build it up trying to get some protein in to your breakfast. Before you ask pop tarts and rice krispies don’t count!

4. Drink more water
“I drink loads of tea”. Well done – that’s not water! Aim to drink at least 2 litres of pure water. Not only will it cleanse your system it will help with concentration at your desk. You are 60% water and so your body craves it even if you are slightly dehydrated. Unfortunately your craving for water is very similar to a hunger pang and so your body wants water and you interpret it as a much needed trip to the vending machine.

You can still drink tea or coffee but you need at least 2 litres of pure water over the course of the day. Aim for 500ml before each meal and an additional 500ml after dinner – not too close to bed the last thing you need is a wander to the en-suite at 3am

5. Fast between dinner and breakfast
This alone has the capacity to make a huge impact to your waistline and your sleep quality. Lets just say you finish your last mouthful of dinner at 7pm. You should aim to not eat another thing for around 12 hours until breakfast the next morning. This has 2 huge benefits:

It stops you snacking on crap in the evening. This is the real danger zone for most people – but this is just a habit you weren’t born that way it is a learned behaviour and you owe it to yourself to break the cycle. You may even wake up wanting breakfast the next day!

It gives your major organs a break and a chance to regenerate and cleanse while you sleep. It will massively improve your sleep quality as well as your body is not digesting food and pumping nutrients around your body.

Try this for 3 days and see how your sleep quality improves. Once you have felt the benefits you’d be mad to change it!

If you really want to see a change in your body and how you perform at work i urge you to try these things. 99% of people who read this will not action these things but will continue to moan about how tired they feel or that they are overweight

Take action now and thank me later

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